Scrapbook
by jan.rover
Summary: I smiled as and she finally relaxed. “Yeah, I didn’t see the pictures you have been obsessed with.” “Right.”, she smirked and entangled her fingers to mine as I held her hand. “For all I know you’ve been keeping pictures of the Ice Queen.” rukaru.. ;D


A/N : Hi! Another rukaru.. sorry for the bad summary… I hope the whole story's gonna be a lot better.

Please review!! ;D

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**Scrapbook**

PROLOUGE

HPOV

_I watched him marvel at his surroundings, his eyes wandering here and there – making me wonder at some point what he thought of my room._

_I tried to get busy of looking for Mikan's deram-catcher, finally realizing that he was totally distracting me. Yeah, yeah, don't ask such a long story._

_"What's this?" He suddenly asked after I told him not to touch anything for how many times now. My heart pounded hard, and my ears rang as I saw what he was referring to._

_'No. He shouldn't see that! –––'_

_He stood up and smirked. I looked away, flushing – finding him real cute and damn annoying. I froze as the imaginary drum roll stopped. He opened it…_

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RPOV

"Don't touch anything." I heard her say as I stepped into her room. It was cozy; not too girly, but very Hotaru.

She stormed inside and immediately started to look for something she said she forgot to bring with her. Surely, I felt like a misplaced puzzle piece. I really couldn't remember how I actually walked her to her house from Mikan's at this middle of the night.

To make things clearer, we were having a mini-reunion party. Well, sort of. The girls, actually, were the ones who planned a slumber party ––– the boys, more like a tag-along. After all, the ration had already been one-to-one; Natsume with Mikan, Koko with Sumire…you know. So maybe that was why I'm with the Ice Queen… Who can't leave who..

I wandered my eyes around me and unconsciously tried to find anything that was catchy. Well, I didn't expect to find one, but I did.

There, n the same shelf she was searching on, I was a strip of jet black-colored thing. From the adjective itself, I really found it catchy. And for some reasons I didn't figure out right ahead, curiosity knocked on my door.

I felt her eyes glance to me as I squatted beside her and took a close look at the black 'thing'.

"I said don't touch anything." ––– I ignored her and touched it. Hmm. A scrapbook.

"What's this?" I asked nonetheless.

She stood up at the moment I asked and turned her heels to go, saying that she had already found what she was looking for. Well I ignored her again, feeling more curious of what I was holding, now that she obviously was trying to distract me from something I thought she was hiding.

I stood up and held it to my hands, opening it with a smirk o my face ––– feeling so smug that she was now getting pissed. "Let me see it."

"Give it back!" ––– she said in an annoyed, almost-yelling-but-couldn't-for-her-mom-was-already-sleeping kind of voice, and grabbed it from my hands.

I raised and eyebrow and grinned. No, she isn't my girlfriend. But indeed she became very special. And though I don't know how we started to treat each other 'normal' ––– out of our little world of chases and black mailings ––– I couldn't see myself getting used to it.

"Back off, Nogi." ––– _'oooh….Ice Queen's mad._'

I snickered at her now furrowed brows and grabbed the book back, "I want to take a look at it!"

"Darn it, Bunny Boy, I said give it back."

I ignored her for the third time and proceeded in staring at the cover. I glanced at her as I flipped it open, and If I wasn't mistaken, I thought I saw her eyes widen and her cheeks turn beet red.

My eyes widened at the sudden surprise I felt. But later I found myself choking on my own laughs. It was, definitely, some scrapbook And I was laughing at the pictures in it; most specifically, _her _black mail pictures.

I tried not to make too much noise, for this would be too long an explanation if her mom accidentally wakes up. "W-why were you keeping these??!' I managed to ask as I chuckled at my stupid-looking pictures with Piyo. ––– _'Really, now, was I this pathetic?!'_

"Those were bestsellers." ––– I barely heard her answer.

"Really?"

"Of course.", she replied abruptly –– almost too defensively –– and I noticed that she was already slanted away from me, and was no longer facing me completely.

I thought of it as nothing, so I resumed on flipping on the pages. I stopped when I got to another cover-like page. Now it wasn't black, but rather it was designed neatly with specialty papers in a feminine yet Hotaru-ish way.

Again I noticed her eyes flicker and her cheeks flamed red. My heard thumped hard and I started to doubt if I still wanted to continue. But then I was curious, and though I already started to feel a lot warm for the Ice Queen long ago, I couldn't help but piss her off now just to feed that tiny curiosity resurfacing. I gulped inwardly and flipped the page. So I choked again.

What I saw weren't black mail pictures anymore. It was candid…

I saw one with myself talking to Natsume, maybe, for I was the only one that could be seen on the picture; another one taken while I was sleeping. There was one with me smiling at something –– or someone––as if I was posing at the camera….

And so I couldn't help but feel embarrassed. I don't know why, because all those years I thought I already got used to her taking pictures of me. But now, with these perfectly taken pictures with no hint of black mail business, I felt conscious.

"W-why were you .. keeping these?" ––– I didn't notice I asked the same question, barely hearing myself as I whispered.

She didn't answer.

I stared at my pics again and malicious thoughts now started to hover. No. It just couldn't be that she only wanted them. There must be some kind of 'truth' to it ––– anything that I believed the Ice Queen would do. For then I was quite sure, that Hotaru Imai, wouldn't want to keep Ruka Nogi's pictures for her own pleasure…

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_'…pleasure…'_ ––– I gulped and flushed again, slowly feeling the nausea at the weird yet well-liked thought.

"D-did you sell these?", I stuttered a few moments later.

"No."

I couldn't see her face now, but she was still half-facing me. ""W-why.?"

"Because I was afraid…"

"What?" ––– I blinked and my brows furrowed at the sudden strike of confusion. _'The Ice Queen's never afraid!'_

"A year later after we graduated…" She paused, weighing her words, "I started to forget people…Even those whom I thought I'd remember even without thinking of them.."

My mouth gaped and I managed to recover, feeling annoyed at the indirect answer. "I-I don't think your answer is any relevant to what I was ––– "

She didn't let me finish. I froze as she flashed me a glare, washing away all the courage I thought I had. "I was afraid of forgetting you."

I fell blank and couldn't do anything but stare at her in the eyes. She couldn't be saying this, could she?

I was surprised. Got caught off-guard. Unarmed. Unwarned. I was shot with a sudden blow that I never believed that existed before. I was love struck.

I smiled. I never perceived I would confess to her sooner or later; or if it would be as awkward as this; or where and when I would tell her; much more if it would be unlikely as here in her room.

I chuckled and closed the scrapbook, deciding to myself that I already heard what I needed to hear for a long time now. I turned to the shelf and returned it. I faced her, and felt shy.

"Maybe…even if I wanted to before ––– " I muttered mostly to myself , "I don't think I'd ever forget you."

I thought I saw her mouth open, but closed it back again. I smiled a half-smile and now gave in. "Come here…", I muttered and held her in my arms. "Know that I love you."

"Know that I do too."

We both pulled away from each other and she looked away as I stared at her. I was still shy, but now I couldn't hide what I had been trying to deny ever since Academy days.

"You didn't see the pictures." Her voice sounded demanding.

I chuckled. "Well I did."

She flashed me that familiar glare ––– only with matching shy eyes and red cheeks ––– and I backed away inwardly. "I said you didn't.."

"Oh." ––– I fell black for a moment, and thought. This sure is a lot more embarrassing for her than to me.

I smiled as and she finally relaxed. "Yeah, I didn't see the pictures you have been obsessed with."

"Right.", she smirked and entangled her fingers to mine as I held her hand. "For all I know you've been keeping pictures of the Ice Queen."

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EPILOUGE

HPOV

_It was awkward. Very, very, awkward. But then I managed to recover immediatedly, for this was the new reality. _

_I told him to go ahead and wait for me at the door, for I saw something that struck my curiosity._

_There on the floor was a black wallet. Obviously, it was his. The initials 'R.N' were embroidered in one corner of it. _

_'Maybe it fell when ––– ' _

_But then my thoughts were cut by what I saw. I opened it and my eyes widened for a moment as I saw a familiar image stuck inside. It was quite wornned out, it's age tracing back 5 to 6 years ago, if I wasn't mistaken. And upon realizing it I flushed. He was keeping it since Academy days._

_I couldn't help but smile. An eye for and eye. It was me._

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A/N : Done!! I made this in one night, after days of struggling to keep my hands of my paper and pencil. Sigh. I guess I just couldn't help but write, write, and write! Lol..

Please review!! ;D

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